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Anthropology & Photography No. 3 from Resistance Towards Invisibility

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Anthropology & Photography No. 3 from Resistance Towards Invisibility From resistance towards invisibility Catherine de Lorenzo and Juno Gemes Anthropology & Photography No. 3 First published 2016 Cover image: The March for Truth & Justice , La Parouse, 1988, © Juno Gemes ISSN 2397-1754 ISBN 978-0-900632-45-7 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. De Lorenzo and Gemes – From resistance towards invisibility Inspired by Aboriginal activism of the 1970s, a for the Arts and the establishment of its all- small group of non-Indigenous photographers indigenous Aboriginal Arts Board (AAB), where worked closely with Indigenous people, ‘Aboriginals [were] given full responsibility for their culture and struggles, making them developing their own programs in the arts’ empathetically visible for the first time. This (Aboriginal Arts Board 1973), and even the Prime cracked open the barriers of invisibility, silence Minister was reported as saying that ‘Aboriginal and negative imaging surrounding the realities art should be used to inspire social protest in the of Aboriginal life. Informed insider images cities’ (Mendelssohn 2013). appeared in exhibitions and publications. These In seeking to make explicit some of the activist photographers, working collaboratively transitional activities that helped bring about the with Aboriginal leaders in communities and rapid transformation of Australian photography towns, created images that were enthusiastically by so many Indigenous photographers, our used by Aboriginal people and helped change the purpose is not just to augment existing histories consciousness of the nation. Our paper examines but to draw attention to some of the healing this history and asks why these historic images narratives developed by highly skilled and are overlooked by some scholars and art museum committed photographers engaged in creating exhibitions. Australia’s visual history during this seminal Most photographic histories addressing period of dramatic change. Australian Indigenous issues and contemporary Our paper is informed by multiple research photography begin their accounts in the mid strategies. The authors bring together the eighties with the landmark NADOC’86 Exhibition perceptions of an activist photographer and of Aboriginal and Islander Photography an academic researcher on Indigenous photo (Ennis 2007:41–50; Gellatly 2000:285–6; representation during this period. Memory Jones 2011:204–6) – although some literature informs this paper, but does not frame it. We does exist that intimates a longer tradition of have conducted archival research on relevant photography produced for domestic purposes exhibition goals and critiques, and where (Aird 1993; Lee 2000; Macdonald 2003:225– documents are wanting, we interviewed relevant 42). This paper argues that the 1986 starting date protagonists.1 Our understanding of the period is is problematic because it implies that Indigenous informed by photo-historiography, as well as by photography suddenly landed fully formed on more recent theoretical perspectives that seek the art-exhibition scene from virtually nowhere. to throw new light on the period. It is important Missing from these photo histories is an analysis to state that the oversights we note in curatorial of a significant body of work developed by non- and historical discourse are not driven by self- Indigenous photographers who worked closely interest. Our goal in revisiting the 1970s and early alongside Indigenous people to inform the 80s is to draw attention to strategies adopted Australian nation about the struggles, activism by a small number of dedicated photographers, and achievements that were transforming including outstanding practitioners such as Jon Indigenous lives. The 1970s had seen the Rhodes, Wesley Stacey and others, to put their introduction of momentous cultural reforms 1 De Lorenzo corresponded with Bruce Hart (11–16 March by the Whitlam Labor Government (1972–5), 2015), Peter Kennedy (14 March 2015) and Linda Burney including the overhaul of the Australia Council (29 May 2015). 1 De Lorenzo and Gemes – From resistance towards invisibility Figure 1 Left: Installation of After the Tent Embassy, 1982–3, here seen at Wooden Plaza, Canberra, 1983. © Juno Gemes. Right: cover for After the Tent Embassy: Images of Aboriginal History in Black and White Photographs, cover image ©Penny Tweedie, Sydney, Valadon Publishing, 1983. photographic skills to the service of Indigenous rights but also in non-Indigenous consciousness struggles for self-determination. As Peter during the last half century.’ (pers. comm. to Sutton has since reflected, the ‘old rights-based Gemes, 17 April 2014). The visual records of this progressivism’ of the period has now well and movement exist because of the photographers truly gone (Sutton 2008:147). We contend that it who worked by invitation with Indigenous people would be a shame to allow shifting paradigms of around the country, photographing upon request cultural and Indigenous studies to displace this and contributing in any other way they could. seminal period of the larger narrative. Significantly, a few of the photographers were anthropologists (Diane Bell, John von Sturmer), Resistance and their works reflect a time when the practice The photography exhibition After the Tent of anthropology was being transformed, with Embassy (November 1982) was an event that researchers documenting new economic and celebrated ten years of Indigenous activism for cultural structures as well as land-rights self-determination and land rights following claims for the courts. Among the professional the erection of a Tent Embassy on the lawns of photographers – including Penny Tweedie, Juno Parliament House, Canberra on 26 January 1972 Gemes, Wes Stacey, Jon Rhodes, Elaine Pelot- (Foley et al. 2013), and the election later that year Kitchener, Lee Chittick and Michael Gallagher of a reformist government that was responsive – perhaps only Tweedie would have described to these demands. Anthropologist John von herself as a professional photojournalist. These Sturmer has described the ensuing Aboriginal visual-advocacy photographers were drawn to movement as ‘the Civil Rights story in Australia. some of the charismatic Aboriginal leaders and It underpins major changes not only in Indigenous culture makers and to the current realities that 2 De Lorenzo and Gemes – From resistance towards invisibility gripped them. At the time there were few outlets for publishing photographs sympathetically documenting land-rights struggles. There were occasional images in the mainstream press such as Nation Review (Melbourne, 1972–81) and The National Times (Sydney, 1971–86), but some community presses accepted images – such as Land Rights News: A Newsletter for Aboriginals and Their Friends. (Darwin, Northern Land Council July 1976 –August 1985), Aboriginal Land Rights Support Group Newsletter (Leichhardt, Sydney, June 1979– June 1985) and the more glossy Identity magazine (various places, 1971–1982) – though they rarely acknowledged the photographers. However AIM: Aboriginal-Islander-Message (Glebe, Sydney, 1979– 82) regularly published work by Gemes and Pelot- Kitchener, as did mainstream newspapers on occasion.2 In bringing together the work of many photographers working with communities from around the nation, both the exhibition and the post-exhibition publication (Langton 1983; see Figure 1) for After the Tent Embassy identified all photographers by name (although most archival images had yet to await research that might identify the subjects). It seemed less important to note whether the contemporary pictures were Figure 2 Martin Sharp, Art Sale for Land Rights, by professional photographers, anthropologists Paddington Town Hall, Sydney, 1982. or other fieldworkers, for significant diferences were near impossible to spot: the informality of interest here is to look at the reception and legacy many images conveyed an energy that resonated of the exhibition throughout the 1980s and today. with the political impulse for change. Each of After the Tent Embassy was one of three the contemporary photographers advocated the Apmira3 (an Arrernte word for ‘land’) exhibitions aspirations of the land-rights movement. Our held in Sydney in November 1982. The larger 2 The first Indigenous newspaper was Koori Bina: exhibition, Art Sale for Land Rights (Figure 2), A Black Australian News Monthly (January 1977–March with works by over 200 Indigenous and non- 1978), produced by the Black Women’s Action Group Indigenous artists including photographers, was under Roberta Sykes. It was absorbed by AIM (1979–82). a fundraiser for the New South Wales, Kimberley Newspapers such as Koori Mail (1991 onwards) and National and North Queensland Land Councils (Apmira Indigenous Times (2002–15) came much later. To ensure coverage of the 1982 Commonwealth Games Action 3 Apmira was a land-rights support group largely run by Committee, Tweedie secured a commission from Newsweek non-Aboriginals. Two Apmira exhibitions are discussed and Gemes from the Sydney Morning Herald and AIM. now, the third, later. 3 De Lorenzo and Gemes – From resistance towards invisibility archives). After the Tent Embassy was conceived of as a ‘documentary survey of photographs tracing the dispossession of Aboriginals from their land, from the earliest records until the present’ (Anon. 1982:60), and although by this time photographic galleries were emerging in Australian cities, this exhibition, which toured to four other venues, was pitched at community
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